updated 04:35 pm EDT, Fri July 19, 2013

Initial broadcasts pave the way to commercialization in 2014

Broadcasters in South Korea are attempting to provide owners of Ultra HD televisions with suitable content for the high-resolution televisions. Five members of the Korean Cable Television and Telecommunications Association have started broadcasting a small group of channels with the 4K content, six months ahead of its original plan, and a year earlier than similar proposals in Japan.

While the channels have launched with some programming, it is not revealed byetnews what exactly is being broadcast on the channels. With full commercialization of UHD broadcasts said to begin from next year onwards, it is likely that a few test shows and demonstration footage will be shown at first, rather than a full programming schedule.

The Korean broadcasters are one of the first to start providing content for owners of UHDTVs to enjoy, something that is not readily available for the televisions. An earlier test by Eutelsat in Europe showed 4K-resolution images at 50fps, with the aim of helping broadcasters and television manufacturers in creating content for the display format. Sony launched its 4K Ultra HD Media Player earlier this month as its answer to the content problem, providing ten preloaded films on a device for $700, and is also preparing to launch an online video service later this summer.

I strongly suspect that 4K broadcast content will go the way of 3D broadcast content. It's Gee Whiz technology that's overkill with a high price tag and little benefit. When I say 'overkill' I specifically mean that there's no point in viewing content that has a higher resolution than your eye can resolve. 4K and 8K will be successful as professional quality, great for movie theaters, but pointless for any average home user.